A lot of people that could afford it, look at the minimum price, $250. Now you could go out and buy 13 rolls (maybe more) of fresh E6 film and get them processed for the same money. If everybody who thought about a roll of Kodachrome, went out and bought, shot and processed 13 rolls of E6, we might be able to keep E6 from following K14 into the netherworld. The Kodachrome horse is dead, so lets just quit beating on it.

Plenty of people could afford to shoot way more film than they have time to shoot or process or mail off for processing or sort and file.

It's not personally worth $250 to me to use the last roll of Kodachrome I have that I didn't get shot in time to get to Dwayne's, even presuming I could find it again. I haven't cold stored it, figuring it would never be able to be processed. Nor is it worth buying a roll for that. But if I had important photos of a loved one, maybe someone now gone, on an exposed roll I'd do it in a heartbeat. I'd probably do it if I'd never shot Kodachrome, just to get the chance to shoot a roll. But I shot a few rolls in the old days and 17 rolls during 2009-2010 so I needn't do that.

None of these would reduce my usage of E6 or C41 or black and white one bit if I did do them.

11-11-2012, 07:42 PM

wogster

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Nadvornick

Please don't tell others what they can and can't do. Their decisions about what is of value to them are not your call to make.

What if someone out there had pictures of a loved one on a roll of undeveloped Kodachrome? And that person had passed unexpectedly? And during the crisis they missed the Dwayne's deadline? It wouldn't be your place to tell them to skip a possible second chance at processing that now precious final roll because you thought they were beating a dead horse. Your agenda may not be their agenda. That often happens in life.

And why are you trying to rain on the OPs parade? He's obviously gone to great lengths to research and implement a possible recovery option for those kinds of situations. He's generously shared some of his proof-of-concept results with those on APUG. And those preliminary results were good enough that there may be as many as 8-12 rolls who owners may be willing to pay the price. And he says only 5 rolls are required for a minimum run.

More fundamentally, if the OP thinks he may see a business opportunity as a result of his speculative R&D work, who are we to tell him he's beating a dead horse? That he has no right to test the market with an eye toward possibly providing a professional Kodachrome recovery service. No right to make a return on his investment. No right to make a little money. That's not our call to make. His agenda may not be our agenda. That often happens in life.

Ken

[Edit: Read this thread beginning on page 12 at post #116. Wouldn't it have been great if Bob Carnie could have told his customer that YES! there was one place left on Earth that could still process Kodachrome into color transparencies? Would you have told his customer to stop beating the dead Kodachrome horse? That processing her late father's last roll just wasn't important enough to you?]

First of all, I'm not trying to tell anyone what they should or should not do, with their own money, they are free to spend it whatever way they like. There is a reality though, no start-up business based on requiring a product no longer manufactured, is going to live long, especially when that product is perishable and all remaining stocks are past their use before date. Those 8-12 rolls are not a done deal, they may be interested, but there is a long way between interested and willing to part with cash. Meanwhile, while we are futzing around and spending gobs of R&D and money on getting elderly Kodachrome processed, we might lose E6, because the market for it isn't exactly growing either. If I had a roll of Kodachrome at this point, I doubt I would use it knowing that it costs $250 to get it processed. If it was already exposed, it would have been processed into B&W by now, if it missed the last run.

W

11-11-2012, 07:45 PM

Roger Cole

He never indicated he had any intention of being a "start-up business." That implies an on-going endeavor. I've read nothing like that, just someone who has worked out how to do it considering offering it to a few people that still want and need it, and probably not at much if any profit anyway.

11-11-2012, 08:28 PM

TexasLangGenius

My question still stands.

Let's say that commercial E6 from Fuji went extinct. Would it be far more economical and easier to start a small E6 line (say, like Ilford with black and white)?

If E6 does go extinct, I will be sick to my stomach, but I will still use B&W.

11-11-2012, 09:32 PM

AgX

Aside Fuji there still is Agfa with one E-6 emulsion.

11-11-2012, 09:53 PM

Roger Cole

Quote:

Originally Posted by AgX

Aside Fuji there still is Agfa with one E-6 emulsion.

You mean the stuff sold as Rollei? I suppose there is that, but how viable would processing chemicals be with only that?

Concerning chemistries I would worry much less, as there are still some independant chemistries manufacturers around to offer alternatives to Fuji and Agfa chemistries if necessary.

11-11-2012, 10:37 PM

Ken Nadvornick

Quote:

Originally Posted by wogster

First of all, I'm not trying to tell anyone what they should or should not do, with their own money, they are free to spend it whatever way they like. There is a reality though, no start-up business based on requiring a product no longer manufactured, is going to live long, especially when that product is perishable and all remaining stocks are past their use before date. Those 8-12 rolls are not a done deal, they may be interested, but there is a long way between interested and willing to part with cash. Meanwhile, while we are futzing around and spending gobs of R&D and money on getting elderly Kodachrome processed, we might lose E6, because the market for it isn't exactly growing either. If I had a roll of Kodachrome at this point, I doubt I would use it knowing that it costs $250 to get it processed. If it was already exposed, it would have been processed into B&W by now, if it missed the last run.

Your agenda may not be everyone else's agenda. That often happens in life.

Ken

11-12-2012, 05:46 AM

Stephen Frizza

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg Davis

Steve, are you ready to process, or are you just gauging interest?

I can do it, I currently have a small amount of chemistry left and to process more film in the future would need to buy additional chemicals.
I posted this as a way of guaging interest, and it is good to see there is a little bit out there. Though the idea of shooting on kodachrome for the sake of "One last time"
doesn't seem justified to me. If someone wanted me to go to all the effort of processing the material I would want to see previous work they had done and know the history of the roll they are wanting me to process and also why its justified I go to the effort of doing this. The price I posted is not a price I would profit from. surprisingly doing it as $260 a roll I make a small loss but it is the absolute bone cutting minimum for doing this process at of 2012. If I do decide to do it as a one off thing I will make it very public knowledge and give a future date as to when the one time process will occur.

11-12-2012, 05:55 AM

Stephen Frizza

Quote:

Originally Posted by wogster

A lot of people that could afford it, look at the minimum price, $250. Now you could go out and buy 13 rolls (maybe more) of fresh E6 film and get them processed for the same money. If everybody who thought about a roll of Kodachrome, went out and bought, shot and processed 13 rolls of E6, we might be able to keep E6 from following K14 into the netherworld. The Kodachrome horse is dead, so lets just quit beating on it.

I couldn't agree more. I think your suggestion of spending the money on E-6 is far more healthy. A photographer would need a bloody good reason why they need to shoot k-14 over E-6 for me to process it or have something extremely historically important that missed dwaynes last processing for me to actually do it.